Category: Language

What happens when students are given an opportunity to play with words, after spending a month engaged in researching, writing, memorizing and presenting speeches? Hilarity and high jinks!

For this task, students were given ten story starters to choose from, and fifteen minutes to write as much as possible. On your mark, get set, go!

Here are some of the results:

"If snow was ice cream, there wouldn't be any snow left! Kids would eat it all, and winter would go really fast. No one would eat anything else, like Doritos, because they'd be eating ice cream. Now we know who's causing climate change! R.I.P. Winter Olympics!"-- By Soren

"I was sledding down the biggest slope, when a grizzly came running after me, as if it was a dog running on a treadmill, chasing a bone on a string! As it chased me, I came to a fallen tree branch and dragged it with me. As I held it in my hand, I tore all the small branches off it, to use as a steering wheel, so I could go around trees, holes, jumps, etc. The bear was gaining on me, and when I was coming to the bottom of the hill I saw the biggest jump. I let the stick go and held on as hard as I could to my sled, closed my eyes, and went over the jump. Just as I got off the jump, the grizzly jumped, missed my sled and landed in a big snow pile. I landed in a tree and couldn't get out of it, because I was stuck between the branches! I found some snow, melted it, and then used it to make the branches slippery. I slipped out of the tree and landed in a snow bank. I quickly got out of the snow bank and ran as fast as I could to my house, shut the door, ran up the stairs to my bedroom, jumped into bed and pulled a blanket over my head. I stayed there for the rest of the day!"-- By Brooke

"If I saw the Yeti, I would flip out! I would say, "Hey, Dude. How's it goin'?" Then, he would say, "Nothin' much. I'm just sitting on top of a mountain." Then, I'd say something like, "Hey, you, a cool dude, want to catch a movie or something?" From that moment on, we would be best friends for our whole lives! We'd start growing up together, having fun and seeing movies. But, one day the Yeti would disappear. We'd look up and down... well, practically everywhere. I'd be heart broken, thinking I would grow old and weak all alone. But then, one day, a Superhero would break into my house to give me the most important information ever! He would say, "The Yeti thinks you suck!" So, I would get over the Yeti and become best friends with the Superhero...-- By Enya

"If snow was made of something else, it should be marshmallows because... first, if the snow was ice cream it would melt and you would get all wet. Marshmallows are soft and if you wanted a slippery hill, you could just eat the top off the marshmallow. Eating is also a good way to snow blow, or should I say marshmallow blow. If you needed help clearing the marshmallows off your lawn, you could just call my name! Mmmm. I can just imagine it. Next, I love marshmallows. Have you ever had those massive marshmallows? They are just marshmallows, but BIGGER! They give you more time to finish, and more time to finish means more flavour to crave in your mouth."-- By Owen, Gr. 4

If I lived at the north pole I would do Santa's work. I would be rich. I would be at all the parades. I would make the reindeer work extremely hard. I would make Santa go on the treadmill. I'd make Santa run 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,038 laps. I would get fired."By Ethan

"If I met a Yeti I would say, 'Back off!" He would be the one running the other way. If he ran away I would chase him. Once we got to the top of a mountain I would beat my chest and scream like King Kong, forcing him to run off the mountain. If he survived, I would grab one of those flags in the arctic and stick it in his foot, so he could not run away. Then I would walk up and give him a hug, take the flag out and walk him home. We would be be friends for the rest of our days!"-- By Owen, Gr. 5

"I was sledding down the biggest slope when a bear, a cheetah and an elephant were running at me from behind. I screamed as loud as I could, but while I was screaming I got distracted by a butterfly, fell off the sled and crashed into a tree. I felt like I was flying, then I fell into a pond where badgers were ice fishing. One of the fishing hooks got caught on my pants. When I got out of the pond, there were five hundred animals chasing me. I ran into the closest house, but didn't realize I ran into my enemy's house. Before I could get out, she locked the door and started yelling at me. Then the animals started to break the windows and climb into the house. I busted through a window. Then I saw Mr. Phelps swimming with a penguin. After that, something really scary big happened: a saw an ant. By the time I got to the hill, the biggest thing EVER happened to me..."
-- By Grace

"If people hibernated, like bears, I would go crazy. Before hibernating,I would eat all the pizza in the cave. I would also eat ice cream before hibernating. I would probably eat while sleeping, too. I would hibernate with my family. I would sleep at the back of the cave, so I wouldn't get cold. I would cuddle with my stuffy buddy. I would probably kick my mom a million times, while hibernating. I would probably sleep walk out of the cave, and when I got cold I would run straight back into the cave, tripping over everybody. If I went into a bear cave, instead of my cave, I would run to the hills screaming like a madman. When I woke up I might have a bruise from hitting the walls of the cave while hibernating. I don't know what would happen to my dogs and my fish, but that's what I think I might do if people hibernated like bears."-- By Paige

"If I could invent a new Winter Olympic sport it would probably be a food eating competition. I would invent this sport because I am good at eating, so I could probably go to the Olympics for Team Canada. I could probably win gold if it was some good food, but if it was bad food I would likely just win bronze. It wouldn't be bad to win bronze though, because that's third place and still a medal!"
-- By Madden

"If I saw a Yeti, of course I'd scream and yell and run for my life! Then, he'd follow me into my house. He'd break my house. I would grab a sled and go down the mountain. He would be eating out of my fridge when he saw me head straight for a tree. Owwwwwwwww, I would think, what is that big dot coming toward me? It would be him on my other five sleds! I would move away from the tree and continue my way down. I would get to the end and run into town. Of course, he would follow me, so I would run to the zoo, but before I could tell them, "Get a mansion-sized cage," he would crash the zoo too! So I would get a cage, thank the zoo keepers for their help, and drop it on him. After that, I would get $1,000,000. The end. Hope that doesn't happen to you some day!"-- By Phynn

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.caor to add a comment to this page.

During recent Social Studies and Literacy periods, our class participated in an island survivor simulation. The exercise was designed as a culminating task for Grade 4 Social Studies (Physical and Political Regions of Canada) and Grade 5 Social Studies (Government). The simulation also stretch students’ ability to work collaboratively in assigned groups and provide opportunities for students to engage in role play and oral discussions.

This is the basic outline of the project (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

STEP ONE:

For the purpose of the island survivor exercise, Grade 4 students were assigned to crash land in the physical region of Canada that they studied as part of their Social Studies unit.

After the class was divided into their survivor groups and they listened to a story about the crash scenario, the Grade 4 students in each group taught their Grade 5 island-mates about the region of Canada where they found themselves stranded:

STEP TWO:

Within their small groups, students began brainstorming a list of all the things they might be able to do with the items that were salvaged from the plane.

STEP THREE:

Groups began work on survival plans and land use maps of their islands. Then they were told they had been rescued and needed to prepare a presentation for the press.

STEP FOUR:

Groups presented their survival plans at a press conference. When students were not part of a particular presentation, they became members of the press gallery. Ten members of the press rated each group's chance of survival, based on the plans they shared. Mrs. Black assessed the drama aspect of the project, based on how well each student acted his/her roles and listened during other groups' presentations.

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

These are the scores the press gallery gave each group's overall survival plan, based on their performance at the press conference:

Newfoundland: 73%

Nunavut: 72%

British Columbia: 64%

Ontario: 60%

The press gallery was also asked to rate the odds of each group surviving a winter in the wilderness, based on the survival plans they presented. These are the class' estimates:

Newfoundland: 83% chance of survival

British Columbia: 70% chance of survival

Nunavut: 66% chance of survival

Ontario: 60% chance of survival

Congratulations to the survivors who crash landed off the coast of Newfoundland! You are the winners of Island Survivor 2017/18!!

Island Survivor was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for most students in the class; a mildly frustrating one for a few. While groups were meeting to brainstorm ideas and achieve consensus about their survival plans, Mrs. Black circulated. She stepped in and facilitated whenever personality clashes or inexperience with consensus-building created an impasse. She hopes the one-on-one and small group coaching that transpired during this activity will provide students with some new tools and strategies they can employ next time they are collaborating with others on a project.

Students in our class were invited to donate gently used toys, games, books and videos that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, students divided the items into four categories, or "stores," created storefront signs, and priced the items they would be selling. All items were priced between 25 cents and a dollar.

Then students were invited to bring up to $5.00 in change, to spend at Market Day. When Market Day arrived, students set up their stores and took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods. Then, they counted their profits and we tallied up how much we raised.

Here are some images of Market Day:

After our sale, it was time to tally up the money raised:

All of the money was donated to the Canadian charity tasked with planting trees along the Highway of Heroes, and our leftover sale items were donated to School Counsel's "Christmas Shopping Day" initiative.

Here is the letter we sent with our donation:

Thank you and congratulations to all the students and parents who supported our fund-raiser with donations of goods and money. We are proud that we could raise enough money to sponsor a tree on the Highway of Heroes!

Yesterday, students in our class attended a 90 minute french-language cooking class, organized by their french teacher Mme. (Sarah) Black. The program provided students with a hands-on opportunity to prepare and taste kid-friendly french pastries, hear an exciting storyboard presentation on French Canadian culture and listen to authentic Acadian music.

Here are some images from our cooking class:

We want to thank Mme. Black for organizing this fun opportunity, and Chef Suzanne (http://www.chefsuzanne.ca) for driving up from Port Perry to teach us!

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

From February through April, our class had the privilege of hosting a teacher-candidate from Lakehead University's Faculty of Education.

Miss Whipp, who is in the first year of the two-year teacher's college program, spent five Wednesdays observing in our classroom, and then five full weeks observing, co-planning and co-teaching. Miss Whipp started off her five week block teaching one subject. By Week 5 she was teaching almost full-time, in consultation with Mrs. Black.

Here are some pictures of Miss Whipp's time with us:

MATH

LITERACY

GYM & DAILY PHYSICAL ACTIVITY (DPA)

HEALTH

SOCIAL STUDIES

DRAMA

FAREWELL PARTY FOR MISS WHIPP!

This afternoon we threw a farewell party for Miss Whipp. A good time was had by all!

We want to thank Miss Whipp for inspiring us to learn, with her creative and fun lessons. We loved having her in our class and we are going to miss her!!

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

This year, students decided to support the Orillia SPCA with our annual class fund raising event, entitled "Market Day."

This is how Market Day worked:

Students in our class were invited to donate gently used toys, games, books and videos that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, students divided the items into three categories, or "stores," created storefront signs, and priced the items they would be selling. All items were priced between 25 cents and a dollar.

Students were then invited to bring up to $5.00 in change, to spend at Market Day. When Market Day arrived, students set up their stores and took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods. Then, they counted their profits and we tallied up how much we raised.

In all, students raised $78.90, through their Market Day event.

At the outset, Mrs. Black had promised to match student donations, up to $110. ($5.00 per student), with a donation of her own.

With Mrs. Black's donation added, our total raised for the Orillia SPCA was $157.80!!

Items that were leftover after our sale were donated to Valu Village.

Thank you and congratulations to all the students and parents who supported our fund-raiser with donations of goods and money. We know the Orillia SPCA will put our funds to excellent use!

Mrs. Black also wants to thank her teaching colleague Lisa MacRae, for sharing the idea of Market Day.

During recent Social Studies and Literacy periods, our class participated in an island survivor simulation. The exercise was designed to introduce the concept of government, stretch students’ ability to work collaboratively in assigned groups and provide opportunities for students to engage in role play and oral discussions.

This is the basic outline of the project (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

STEP ONE:

within their small groups, students began brainstorming a list of all the things they might be able to do with the items that were salvaged from the plane.

STEP TWO:

Groups began work on survival plans and land use maps of their islands. Then they were told they had been rescued and needed to prepare a presentation for the press.

STEP THREE:

Groups presented their survival plans at a press conference. When students were not part of a particular presentation, they became members of the press gallery. Ten members of the press rated each group's chance of survival, based on the plans they shared. Mrs. Black assessed the drama aspect of the project, based on how well each student acted his/her roles and listened during other groups' presentations.

This gentleman took his role very seriously, making his hair appear as if he'd been out in the wilderness for months! 🙂

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

These are the scores the press gallery gave each group's overall survival plan, based on their performance at the press conference:

Nunavut: 65%

British Columbia: 56%

Ontario: 53%

Newfoundland: 36%

The press gallery was also asked to rate the odds of each group surviving a winter in the wilderness, based on the survival plans they presented. These are the class' estimates:

Nunavut: 64% chance of survival

Ontario: 55% chance of survival

British Columbia: 48% chance of survival

Newfoundland: 26% chance of survival

Congratulations to the survivors who crash landed near Graham Island, Norwegian Bay, Nunavut! You are the winners of Island Survivor 2017!!

Island Survivor was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for most students in the class; a frustrating one for a few. While groups were meeting to brainstorm ideas and achieve consensus about their survival plans, Mrs. Black circulated. She stepped in and facilitated whenever personality clashes or inexperience with consensus-building created an impasse. She hopes the one-on-one and small group coaching that transpired during this activity will provide students with some new tools and strategies they can employ next time they are collaborating with others on a project.

Within their Science program, Grade 5 students study "forces acting on structures." This Science unit includes reading and video viewing, hands-on building, the writing of lab. reports explaining the model building process, and a unit test.

This blog post showcases groups of students building model bridges, towers, roller coasters or strength bridges, with agreed upon materials and (in the case of strength bridges) agreed upon bridge spans.

In November and December, our class had the privilege of hosting a teacher-candidate from Lakehead University's Faculty of Education.

Mrs. Tingey began her five weeks in our class with observation. Then, she gradually assumed responsibility for teaching some of our lessons. By Week 5 she was teaching full-time, in consultation with Mrs. Black.

Here are some images of Mrs. Tingey's time with us:

MATH

LANGUAGE

SCIENCE

GYM and DPA

MUSIC

VISUAL ARTS

We want to thank Mrs. Tingey for the energy and enthusiasm she brings to her teaching. Her excitement about education is contagious and we are really going to miss her!

All the best to Mrs. Tingey in her future career as an educator!

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

Our class recently read, "Ice Dogs," a young adult novel by author Terry Lynn Johnson. Ms. Johnson, who lives in Whitefish Falls, Ontario, also works as a conservation officer, and has written a number of outdoor-themed novels.

Students really enjoyed Ice Dogs as a read-aloud, and expressed an interest in sending pictures and reviews of the book to Ms. Johnson.

Ms. Johnson loved receiving pictures and feedback from our class and offered to send us advance copies of two other books that won't be published until next fall! She is looking forward to receiving our reviews of her next two books. 🙂

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG. If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black): mblack@scdsb.on.caor to add a comment to this page.